Yesterday during her naptime when Jessie chose to simply play in her bed rather than sleep, I suddenly heard her enthusiastically shouting, “Julie!  Julie!  Julie!”

Including people, stuffed animals, and dolls, I was unaware of anyone in her life named Julie, so I was perplexed.  It was quiet and then I heard it again, “Julie!  Julie!  Julie!”

Curious who she could possibly be referring to or calling for, I walked to the closed door of her room and asked, “Who’s Julie?”

“She’s my friend who died.  She was sick and she died.  She’s in heaven with Judson.”

“Really?!” I replied.

“Yeah!  Her mommy’s in heaven too because she didn’t want to be alone.”

“Oh?!  How do you know Julie?”

Jessie matter-of-factly stated, “She’s not real.  But she’s my friend.”

“Wow!  She’s your pretend friend?” I asked with surprise because I had never heard her speak of any imaginary people before.

“Yep!  She has a swimming pool and she got hurt.  But she’s okay.”

“Actually, the cool thing is that people in heaven don’t get hurt anymore, Jessie.  Did you know that?”

She paused, then continued, “She was sick and had a tummy ache.  But then she got to sleep in heaven.  They have beds there.”

“They have beds in heaven?  That’s awesome, Jess!”

“She died on 7.”

“She died on the 7th?” I inquired, not quite sure what she meant.

“Yeah.  She died on November 7.”

“Just like Judson.  Did you know that Judson died on November 7th, Jessie?” amazed that she might have picked that up somewhere along the line since we had never talked about the date of Judson’s death directly with her.  “Do you want to tell me more about Julie?” I called through the closed door to her room.

“No thanks!”

“Okay.”  I responded, deeply affected by our conversation.

**I debated whether this post should go on “Joys of Jessie” or here.  I guess it’s a little bit of both!!   🙂